TAIWANESE FILM GETS FESTIVAL'S GOLD HUGO

Michael WilmingtonCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Gold Hugo, top prize of the 34th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, was presented at Sunday night's awards ceremony to "The Hole," a cryptic fable about millennium's end by one of the world's most honored young filmmakers, Taiwan's Tsai Ming-liang. Tsai, whose 1994 "Vive L'Amour" won the Venice Grand Prize, set his new film in a city gripped by pollution, epidemic and endless rain, with a bizarre romance conducted through a hole in an apartment floor.

The festival's Silver Hugo, or second prize, was given to veteran Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui's "The Pear Tree," a nostalgic drama about an aging writer's childhood memories. The Special Jury Prize went to Alejandro Agresti's Argentinian comedy on provincial movie fans and makers, "Wind With the Gone." The Best Acting nods went to Allesandra Martines as the loveless dancer of Claude Lelouch's French "Chances or Coincidences" and to the entire ensemble of the Brazilian political thriller "Friendly Fire," directed by Beto Brant.

The eight-person international jury, chaired by British actor Christopher Lee, also presented Gold Plaques to Peter Delpeut's Dutch romance "Felice . . . Felice" (for visual quality) and to Robin Mukherjee's Indian musical film "Dance of the Wind" (for its score by Shubha Mudgal). The Documentary Jury honored Donna Deitch's moving cancer chronicle "Angel on My Shoulder," and the top prize of the five-person jury of the International Film Critics organization, FIPRESCI, went to Peter Lutzik's bleak Russian anti-war saga "The Outskirts." James Huth's wild and dark French comedy "Serial Lover" was the runner-up.

The awards ceremony was held Sunday at the Chicago Cultural Center, with the festival continuing through Thursday.